Happy New Year! Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor insured that 2014 would begin the right way by blocking Obama’s HHS contraceptive/abortifacient mandate on New Year’s Eve. Here’ the story from the New York Times:

Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Obama administration from forcing some religious-affiliated groups to provide health insurance coverage of birth control or face penalties as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Acting at the request of an order of nuns in Colorado, Justice Sotomayor issued the stay just hours before the requirement was to go into effect on New Year’s Day. She gave the Obama administration until Friday to respond to the Supreme Court.

Justice Sotomayor’s order applies to the nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and other Roman Catholic nonprofit groups that use the same health plan, known as the Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust. The groups’ lawsuit is one of many challenging the federal requirement for contraceptive coverage, but a decision on the merits of that case by the full Supreme Court could have broader implications.

Response: This is a great way to end 2013 and start the new year. The injunctions continue to come in against the HHS mandate. This one is particularly important since it comes from one of the more liberal Supreme Court Justices and also one who was actually appointed by President Obama himself. It does give one hope that religious freedom might well be preserved in the new year for allied religious groups and ministries that the administration had originally deemed to be ‘not religious’ enough for the religious exemption. *Top